George Saunders, author Lately I’ve been going back to read some classic works that I had, in my zany life-arc, missed, in the (selfish) hope of opening up new frequencies in my work. So: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll (the zaniness seems to lack agenda and yet still says something big and political); then on to Speak, Memory by Nabokov, newly reminded that language alone (dense, beautiful) can power the reader along; and, coming soon, The Power Broker by Robert A Caro – a real ambition-inspirer, I’m imagining, in its scale and daring. Vigil by George Saunders is published by Bloomsbury. To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply. Matt, Guardian reader Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections is the rare novel that manages to be both a state-of-the-nation epic and an exquisitely painful family row. This particular family is so meticulously observed that reading about them feels less like fiction and more like overhearing neighbours arguing through a thin wall. Franzen’s great trick is …